There are several FAQ Entries, found in Premiere Elements FAQ's, on the right of the main forum page, and these address some of the issues covered above, plus also offer some tips on tuning up your system for NLE (Non Linear Editing) work. Be sure to read all of the FAQ Articles.

In the Tips & Tricks sub-forum, there are many articles related to program/computer hangs, crashes and even the dreaded BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). They are accessed via the link to Tips & Tricks, also to the right of the main forum page. Here are a few, that might offer some great tips, and things to explore:

Hope that these are helpful, and special thanks to Neale for his assembly of the checklist.

Hunt

* PrE, like most NLE (Non Linear Editing) programs, creates very large working files. These are necessary for it to do the work. Having 30 - 40 GB of defragmented, free space is necessary for the program to work properly. Note: with HDD's, once one gets to about 70% of capacity, the performance will go down. The closer to 100% capacity one gets, the lower the performance. Also, as 70+ % is reached, the mechanical wear on the HDD will increase. As one approaches 100% capacity, the likelihood of catastrophic failure of the HDD will increase greatly, as performance declines. Keeping the use of a HDD below about 70% is important for performance and for the health of the HDD.

If nothing is helping, please see this on Got a Problem - How to Get Started.and post the requested details to help in troubleshooting. This information will be very important, as people are trying to help you troubleshoot remotely, and cannot see your computer. Please help then out here, with the full details of your system.

For updating one's video (and audio) drivers, it is strongly recommended that one go to the chip mfgr's. Web site, plug in their card's model and their exact OS version, in the "Driver Download" area. If one relies on Windows, or a driver utility to check for updates, those will almost always result in a driver version that is about six months old - possibly up to six versions back. It is recommended that one go "to the source," and check for updated drivers there.

Some drivers are provided by the computer mfgr., such as Dell, HP, and some others. If one has such a computer, then the computer mfgr's. site would be the first stop. Most such computer mfgrs. are good at getting the latest driver, for say nVidia, and then tweaking it for their particular computers. This would be the exception to the above suggestions.

Some computer mfgrs., such as Toshiba in years gone by, rewrite the drivers in a proprietary form. ONLY their version of a driver will work. One is totally at the mercy of those particular mfgrs., and will usually find that the driver from the chip mfgr., say nVidia, will not install. Unfortunately, some companies, that do issue proprietary drivers, are not good at updating them. This can be a major problem. There is a Web site: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers, that will allow one to "customize" a new driver to meet the requirements of their proprietary computer. I used this site years ago, with a Toshiba laptop, and was able to update its nVidia chip over the years. It's a bit of work, but I was always successful in doing this. It was necessary, as Toshiba never updated the proprietary version of the nVidia driver, over the five years that I used that machine. Though it has been retired for almost five years, I saw that Toshiba still had never updated it. At least I got five years of service, by customizing the releases from nVidia. I do not know if Toshiba still completely rewrites their video drivers, and in a form that cannot be directly update - I hope not.

Probably the easiest way to find out exactly which video card and driver, one has installed, would be to run "dxdiag.exe" (without the quotation marks) from the Start>Run menu on the PC. Here is a look at the screen w/ the Display Tab chosen:

MaggieKat posted of problems when starting PrE in this THREAD. She went on to give two helpful Adobe KB Articles, and also the instructions to get around a corrupt Organizer Catalog, which Adobe T/S suggested. If one is having trouble launching PrE, her detailed steps might be useful.

For system crashes on Windows machines, running Adobe software, this Adobe KB Article migh be useful. Note: it is general, regarding Adobe programs, so there will be some "solutions," that might be unique to say After Effects, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, or one of the Premiere programs.

Not sure that is a "contribution," and I would post to the forum. First, I would look over this ARTICLE, for what info would be useful.

Then, I would start at the beginning of this article, and follow every step in the checklist. Next, I would follow each link in the "tune up" section, and finally, if nothing has helped, I would follow all the links in the "troubleshooting" section. They sort of work up, in "degree of difficulty." When done, if absolutely nothing helped, and you have not found out the cause of the crash, or hang, I would go to the bottom-right of the forum page, and "Contact Adobe," as something is horribly wrong.

Some crashes and hangs can be traced to problems with the computer's I/O sub-system, as that is very important for many aspects of Video editing. This ARTICLE goes into more detail on the I/O sub-system.

Video editing requires a lot of HDD real estate, and having that available, and defragmented, can be very important.

Knowing what the I/O sub-system is comprised of, how the HDD's are allocated for use by the NLE (Non Linear Editor), how much free-space is available, and if it has been defragmented, can be very, very important.

Besides having space for the program to work (working files can be very large), the performance of a HDD deteriorates, as ~ 70% of capacity is reached, and then deteriorates very rapidly, as one approaches capacity. Also, the closer to capacity, the greater the likelihood of a catastrophic failure - not a pretty thing.

The exact necessary free-space differs by NLE program, Project size, and also the Assets used, but having at least 40 - 60GB available is a good place to start. Remember, at about 70% of capacity, performance declines.

If one is having issues, posting the full specs. of their computer's I/O sub-system might point up bottlenecks and issues. That is why this portion of a system's specs. is so often asked for, and is a prominent part of the "Got a Problem - How to Get Started" article, linked above.

As Windows uses Vrtual Memory, i.e. the Page File, which is often (default) dynamically managed, HDD free-space, where the Page File is located, can be very important, and is talked about in the "Memory & Resources" article above.